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Looking for an affordable vacation with a real-life kick? Try house swapping

Two broke freelancers with two kids and a mortgage — not the likeliest candidates for an annual European holiday. But that’s exactly what we were able to do, thanks to home exchanges (and travel points).

The prospect of taking children overseas, with all their paraphernalia, was more nightmare than dream. But a home exchange with a similar family proved to be ideal. They had all the stuff — high chairs, car seats, cribs, games and toys — and space for us to stretch our legs.

One year we had a large house and even larger yard in Austria. There were a couple of chickens, an outdoor foosball table, a small pool and mountains to hike. Salzburg, Vienna and Prague were short day trips away.

Another year we went to Paris, where my son played chess in Luxembourg Gardens and my daughter climbed the Eiffel Tower. We were able to see how others live, and on every exchange, I brought home great tips — especially about storage.

When Tara George’s marriage ended in 2016, she exchanged her Toronto home with a couple who lived near the Eiffel Tower. She booked cultural events she loved: opera, a church cello concert, bike tour to Giverney, cooking lessons and a day of shopping. Some days were left open for taking her book and blanket to relax at the Rodin Sculpture Garden or Bois de Boulogne.

“It was a perfect holiday,” says the 47-year-old executive recruiter.

The home exchange cut her upfront costs to just the airfare and also offered George peace of mind that someone was taking in her mail and watering the plants. In total, she’s done seven exchanges.

The notion of exchanging your home with strangers began in 1953 when teachers in Switzerland were looking to travel during their summer holidays but on limited incomes. The company they founded, Intervac International, now has 30,000 members in 52 countries.

Listings were first printed in a catalogue and mailed out. Today, it’s via website, email and Skype. It costs $100 (U.S.) to list your home and family with details including the number of people, when and how long you want to exchange, size and location of house, as well as area attractions.

Members are mostly middle-class families who own modest homes in safe neighbourhoods. “I’ve exchanged with houses that were ‘Wow!’ and others that weren’t great,” says George. “Stockholm had uncomfortable beds and was not that nice, but it was one of my best trips ever.”

Once the exchange is agreed upon, dates are decided and flights are booked as close to each other as possible. Sometimes they meet and sometimes they don’t. Intervac has a letter of agreement, which both exchange partners sign.

Arranging the exchange provides lots of opportunities to get to know someone and their family. “They start becoming a person,” says George. “Generally I find if people are polite and thoughtful, and plan ahead, it’s going to go smoothly. If people are last-minute without good reason, and disorganized, then I’m not so sure.”

Then there’s the prep: Getting the house clean and ready for visitors. George says she locks away very little other than documents. And since every home has its eccentricities, George has written a home manual; some exchangers use sticky notes with instructions.

Claudia and Duncan Wood, who live in the Beach, started exchanging in the 1990s. In 25 years, the couple has done 20 exchanges that have included homes in Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, France, England and in British Columbia. Occasionally they seek specific locations, but the best trips have “come out of the blue. When we said, ‘Open to all offers’ on our listing, it was always unique. Life is a path and this path opens up — so why not take it?” says Claudia.

Exchanges are popular with young families. “We really wanted to travel with (our kids) and show them how people live outside France,” says Monique Beroud, whose family swapped this year with the Woods. The Berouds, who live in Lyon, France, have been exchanging since the mid ’80s when their two children were small.

“You can take your time to enjoy everything and everybody around and don’t feel compelled to sightsee every day,” says Beroud. “It is also great to cook as the locals do — I remember doing steak and kidney pies in Ireland, picking up strawberries and blueberries in Sweden and tasting smoked fish I had never heard of before.

“In Toronto, we bought fruit and veg at Evergreen Brickworks, salmon and cheese at St. Lawrence Market, ate poutine at The Distillery. We shopped in small groceries (Greek or Italian in particular), the kind of shops that have nearly disappeared in France,” she adds.

Beroud, whose daughter Cecile now lives in Riverdale with her own family, visits the city a few times a year. She loves “the contrasts between the skyscrapers and the ‘villages,’ or the small sandy beach along Lake Ontario next to a huge warehouse.

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“Past and present combine and it really makes the city very attractive. We are great fans of the Toronto streetcars — the old ones in particular — and I love pulling the yellow string! The view of the skyline at night over Riverdale is splendid,” Beroud says.

Occasionally the unexpected occurs, like the time the Woods exchanged with a family not used to air conditioning and opened all the windows while the AC ran.

On her Wales exchange, Tara George lost the British family’s cat for three days. “You don’t usually get asked to care for pets,” she says, “but if we hadn’t been willing to look after the cat, the exchange wouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately, the cat didn’t like us and bolted. But it returned eventually.”

Things get broken, and then replaced. But Claudia Wood says she “isn’t going to let the fear of something being lost or broken stop us from this wonderful experience that has undoubtedly enriched our lives.”

The trust factor is one of the things that Monique Beroud finds “very rewarding these days, when you are somehow compelled to mistrust everybody … it does us so much good to live in some people’s home without the least misgivings.

“We also find it very comforting to leave our home to people we know will take good care of it, will water the garden, pick up the mail, wonder where we bought our china, have a look at our books … Just what human relationships should be.”

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